Oct 22, 2005
New iView Media competes with Aperture
In an effort to compete with all the attention Apple is getting for Aperture, iView is announcing version 3 of iView MediaPro which will be available from 1st of November 2005:
Like earlier versions, MediaPro 3.0 helps users organize and manage a high volume and wide variety of digital files by creating customized, centralized and searchable catalogs.
Now, new features and enhancements simplify and speed up specific workflow tasks, including: importing, organizing, annotating, searching, distributing and archiving valuable digital assets.
New features include:
Pro Lightbox –This digitized version of the photographer’s lightbox gives more powerful viewing options. In full screen mode, view up to four images side by side; compare and contrast; zoom and scroll to the same point on multiple images simultaneously; mark favorite selections; display histogram information for all images.
Streamlined Annotation Workflow – Provides more consistent annotation throughout your entire workflow, from import to export, via a user-defined controlled vocabulary (such as keywords). Support for industry standards IPTC/XMP Core and UNICODE means that annotations assigned in MediaPro can be read in other applications such as Adobe Photoshop, and you can use any language character set in annotations (such as Japanese).
Dynamic File Import Control – Create catalogs faster by batch renaming files, applying multiple annotations and copying media files to folders automatically on import. For example, images from a shoot can be stored into the right folder and batch renamed to fit a preferred filename format directly on import. You can also batch import files from the Web directly into catalogs using the cURL technology for transferring files online.
New File Format Support – New file format support includes: WMV, WMA, Microsoft Word, RTF documents and archived Web page files.
XML Import and Export – Industry standard compliance helps protect your digital archive. MediaPro can now import XML and export catalogs to XML. For example, you can export a catalog and its metadata to XML formatted data and choose to change the XML structure, using XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation). You can also export XML files from iView MediaPro to other applications and create HTML or text documents.
Enhanced Interface – iView MediaPro has always excelled at responding to a user’s requirements. Now you can customize your interface to display only the metadata fields you need while you’re working and personalize IPTC terminology to fit your workflow. Also, you can save your catalog layout options as themes or use MediaPro’s predefined themes.
Visual Search – Powerful catalog search/filter capabilities (including Boolean logic) are directly at your fingertips.Find the images you want more quickly, intuitively and efficiently without opening new windows in MediaPro or having to do multiple searches.
Advanced Web Gallery Options – MediaPro catalog publishing options are expanded. You have more flexibility in making Web galleries and integrating them with your existing Web site. Web Galleries are no longer limited to HTML tables. For example, create unique Web pages using other technologies, including Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Also, you can now upload exported galleries directly to your Web server from MediaPro 3.0 via FTP.
I’m excited about Aperture, although I doubt I can afford it at $499, but at $199 I can at least consider investing in iView MediaPro 3.
[posted with ecto]